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August 9, 2009

G110: Yankees 5, Red Sox 2

Victor Martinez's two-run home run to deep left off Phil Coke ended Boston's scoreless inning streak at 31. It was the longest stretch of futility since September 1-5, 1974, when the Red Sox went 34 innings without a run.

With a sudden 2-1 lead, Lester (7-5-1-0-7, 107) should have started the eighth. I'm assuming Terry Francona had no plans to have Lester pitch the entire inning and wanted his first reliever out of the pen to start with a clean slate and no runners on base.

And so Lester sat on the bench while Daniel Bard and Hideki Ojakima gave the game away. After Bard retired Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira hit back-to-back home runs. Alex Rodriguez walked, Jorge Posada doubled, and Nick Swisher hit a two-run single.

The Red Sox mounted a rally (of sorts) in the ninth against Mariano Rivera. J.D. Drew singled to right (he was 3-for-4) and after Mike Lowell flied to right and Jason Varitek struck out, pinch-hitter David Ortiz walked. Jacoby Ellsbury was the potential tying run, but he grounded weakly to first to end the game and the series.

The first four-game sweep of the Red Sox in the Bronx since August 16-19, 1985.

And because we cannot let a day go by without a roster move: the Red Sox have called up RHP Fernando Cabrera (1.69, 20-for-20 in save opp.) from Pawtucket and sent Enrique Gonzalez back down. Cabrera's major league stats -- 2004-08 with the Spiders and Orioles -- are here.

The Red Sox turn to Lester to avoid a four-game sweep and to snap a five-game losing streak. A victory tonight would move Boston back to 4.5 GB the Yankees in the East.

Lester has allowed more than three earned runs in only two of his last 14 starts -- a 2.42 ERA since May 21). He has faced the Yankees twice this season: April 24 in Boston (6-7-2-3-7, Sox 5-4) and May 4 at New York (7-6-2-3-10, Sox 6-4).

Thanks in large part to some newfound control of his cut fastball, Pettitte was able to hold the Blue Jays to just one run in 6.2 innings last time out. Struggling with his control at times, Pettitte nonetheless struck out six batters, using the cutter to work ahead in counts.

Pettitte started in Fenway on April 26 (6-6-4(3ER)-4-6) a game the Red Sox won 4-1.

Wankers Of The Day: Daily News writers Bill Madden, who announces "the worm has officially turned" and the Yankees are threatening to turn the AL East into "a cakewalk", and John Harper, who claims that the rivalry now has a "more familiar Yankee dominance" and Brian Cashman has "outmaneuver[ed]" Theo Epstein this year.

Oh well, we still have an 8-4 margin in the series, but that doesn't help in the standings.On a brighter note (and ANYTHING would be brighter), Neo-soul turned out to be pretty damn good music last night.

I will be here. I really think this team is a lot better than they've played this week (except for the starting pitchers not named Smoltz and Penny who have been very good).

Maybe everyone is pressing to hard and trying to be the hero too much. I really find team-wide slumps like this hard to understand and obviously frustrating but this team is capable of playing very well. Hopefully they will show that again soon.

This is pretty grim at the moment. Lets shave a couple of games and wait til we get that shower of shit team back to Fenway in late August and see what we can do. They still have west coast trips to make, and have a tougher schedule down the stretch than we do, but if we keep playing like shit, then...

Everything's in flux right now. This is a between-time for the Red Sox. The guys are banged up, got a lot of injuries, but also we have things to look forward to. I'll be very excited to watch Tazawa pitch and maybe, just maybe we'll see Dice-K back and being a good Dice-K, at least good enough to help us win. Paul Byrd is coming along, although I wouldn't like to hang my hopes on Paul Byrd.

This time of the year is all about survival. All we want to do is just GET IN to the playoffs. Somehow, some way. Once that happens, anything can happen. You have to get in, but getting in isn't IT. Then you have to play your best baseball, and I think the Red Sox can play their best baseball when it counts.

You can't be serious. Smoltz did not pan out, but where does he rank on the list of the Red Sox's hopes/disappointments this season? 12th? 15th? ... And let's remember the shitty starts this year by Wang, Hughes and Mitre.

Any advantage Cashman has is because of the cash, man. And recently, it is the nearly $1,000,000,000 in about one year's time. That's one billion dollars.

The myth of Cashman's baseball acumen is perhaps even stronger than the supreme glory of Varitek's intangibles behind the plate.

I don't believe there is a myth , he gets killed here on the east coast, and has yet to win anything..The jury is still out here, there are still games to play...And the Red Sox had every oppurtunity to sign any of the same guys they did , they are not hurtin for cash, they just have limits..

Good post, ish. Sounds about right. Get in, then we'll do our damage. They've got a pretty big lead in the east right about now. Let's see where we're at come Sep 1 though...

Speaking of the lead - have the comparisons to the 5 game sweep in 2006 come out from the mediots yet? You know, the one that totally blew us from contention and was the "greatest choke in sports history"?